The Day My Little Free Library Came Home

If you’re not familiar with them, Little Free Libraries were started by awesome Wisconsite Todd Bol, who wanted to honor his mom, a bibliophilic former schoolteacher. He put one in his yard and built a couple for friends.

And like that old shampoo commercial, they told two friends, and they told two friends, and soon the world was filling up with awesomeness. Read more about the history of Little Free Library.

The Dream Awakens

This March at the meeting, the founder of Little Free Library was there (with an awesome library, actually), and I remembered my forlorn sign tucked away in the filing cabinet. I felt guilty and inspired at the same time. If you’re going to feel guilty, I highly recommend accompanying it with a side dish of inspired.

My carpentry skills had not improved, so I decided to start saving my allowance (My husband and I each give ourselves $50 a month mad money). I saved up enough to buy a ready-made library and have it installed (including some birthday money).

I even had enough for a custom stamp and the cutest weather vane you have ever seen.

The Dream Comes True

I went to the Little Free Library website and I found the perfect library for sale! It came with books, even! It was the colors of the high school at which I taught English for years. How perfect is that? Go, Vikes!

I ordered it, and soon there was a big box in my living room.

I hired the man who installed our mailbox to help me install it (he worked while I did a happy dance, so there was a fair division of labor going on).

My neighbor even gave me that cute little handle shaped like a twig. See it? So cute.

I made a little sign to tell people what to do with the Little Free Library and taped it in the window.

I put a log book in it, as well as little lights so you can browse at night. The log is really in the back tucked behind the books, but I put it in the front for this picture.

I even made cute little bookmarks to put in it.

The quality of that photo is somewhat diminished by my having taken it on the trunk of my car. Just bein’ real, folks.

Here’s where it gets fun

The Library came with a charter, so I still had my lonely charter 4934 in the filing cabinet. Think about it – in January 2013 when that sign arrived, it was 4934. Now, my charter is 24768. Wow!!! You go, Little Free Library!

So, what to do with the charter? They cost about $70 for the wood sign (which is what I have), so I didn’t want to just discard it. I decided to…give it away!

This giveaway starts now and goes until the end of next week. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment telling me where you’d put your Little Free Library. I would suggest that “back of the filing cabinet” will not result in a win. (Actually, I’m using some giveaway software to help me ensure fairness).

Update: Congrats to Sallie F., who won the Little Free Library charter!

My hope

I hope that this little library encourages people to read. I hope it brings a smile to people who see it when they come by. I hope that it will give back to the reading universe, in some small way, all that reading has done for me.

I am an elementary school teacher (in fact, I follow your website since a time I attended a class you taught at my district). That said, a bunch of students of my school live in an apartment complex, and many of them do not have Internet access or a nearby library. I think that place would be a perfect location for a Little Library!

I’ve always wanted to do this! I would put one near my hometown of Branson because the library system isn’t great. They do the best with what they have, though. Not a lot of library bonds pass. There is also quite a bit of homelessness, so I would maybe try to place it near temporary housing frequented by that population.

Our neighborhood just installed ours a few weeks ago. It was a true community effort from building, to painting, to roofing, mural painting and installing.. Plus all the work to get HOA approval. So excited.

I live a few blocks from what was my daughter’s elementary school. Our street get a lot of traffic from kids and adults as they go back and forth to school and walk their dogs. I would love to have the charter so I could put up a library for everyone to enjoy!

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Welcome! I'm Lisa Van Gemert, the Gifted Guru. I'm an educator, an author, a speaker, and a mom of gifted kids. I share ideas & resources I think are worth your time. Thank you for visiting with me! Read More…

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